


Smiles and Laughter

by ladyhoneydarlinglove



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Jack is distraught over Gabriel smiling, Pre-Canon, Pre-Game(s), Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 14:17:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7364824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyhoneydarlinglove/pseuds/ladyhoneydarlinglove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack finds a set of dog tags with something extra on them. Turns out, Gabriel Reyes likes Captain America.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smiles and Laughter

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a warm up exercise and then evolved into its own little thing. Mostly it was just an excuse to write Jack being unexpectedly smitten.

Jack found the set of dog tags in one of the small dressing rooms adjoined to the labs, forgotten by some poor soldier when they’d stumbled back to their room, likely too drugged up by the latest round of serum injections up to notice. Jack himself could barely keep his eyes open, the world around him blanketed in a haze, and that, the doctors had assured him with unsettling enthusiasm, was the best reaction they could have hoped for. So he picked the tags up, figuring he’d save their owner the hassle of having to go back for them when they probably wouldn’t be able to put one foot in front of the other without falling over until tomorrow. Midwestern kindness was a habit he had yet to break. 

It wasn’t until he reached the commons area right before their rooms that some of his newly enhanced senses broke through the haze of his mind, and Jack became aware of something different about the tags. They were too heavy. Not by much, but enough that he could notice now as he held them. It was a strange sensation, to be able to narrow in on such a minute detail with such clarity, even while he could barely string together a coherent thought. 

He opened his hand, counting three tags attached to the simple chain. Two were standard military issue, neatly stamped and encased with rubber rims, but the third, unexpected and the source of the extra weight, was etched with a symbol Jack didn’t recognize. A star, encased by two circles, one of which bled off the edges. It seemed familiar, tickling something at the back of his mind as he flipped it over to reveal a single capital A in a block font, but the fog made it difficult to connect the dots. 

Jack supposed it didn’t really matter if he understood the tag or not, though he had to wonder which of the soldiers here was gutsy enough to defy regulation and add something personal to their tags. He moved the third tag to the side in favor of looking over the other two, eyebrows raising as he read the name embossed on them. Gabriel Reyes.

“Huh,” Jack said to himself. “That’s… interesting.” He would never have pegged the no nonsense, rarely cracked a smile, always kept everyone in line Major Reyes as the kind of person to wear something sentimental. Apparently there was more to Reyes than a gruff demeanor and a propensity to swear under his breath in Spanish when irritated, which was most of the time. Jack laughed softly. “Who would’ve thought,” he mumbled, changing course and making his way towards Reyes’ room.

As the most senior of the soldiers gathered for the program, Reyes had been awarded a smaller but private room at the far end of the sleeping quarters. He didn’t seem especially pleased when answering his door, glaring at Jack darkly as he looked him up and down and then bit out, “What the hell do you want, Morrison?”

Jack brushed off the unpleasant greeting; being the most senior officer also meant Reyes received his dose of serums and drugs before everyone else. He looked like he’d been suffering for hours, his posture slumped, eyes red and rimmed in dark circles, fingers trembling slightly as they held the door frame. The Midwestern hospitality in Jack ached to offer some sort of comfort, or at least some reassurance and perhaps food, but he doubted it would be well received. Instead, he held up Reyes’ tags and said, “I found these in the one of the lab dressing rooms. I thought I’d give them back.”

Reyes blinked. “Oh,” he said, reaching out to take them. Jack noticed the subtle shift in his expression, the softening of his eyes and mouth as some of his tension left, the gruff anger fading. It betrayed an underlying handsomeness to his features, normally masked by a perpetual glare and frequent scowl. “Thanks.”

He stepped back, about to close the door when Jack, against his better judgement, blurted out, “What’s the third one?”

Reyes paused. “The third one?” he asked.

“The third tag. What is it? It’s gonna drive me crazy if I don’t know.”

Reyes blinked again, and then laughed; a pleasant sound, still gruff but hearty and full of a liveliness Reyes didn’t normally carry. It washed over Jack like he’d just sipped a particularly good bourbon; strong and then smooth, followed by a warmness that reached down to the tips of his fingers and toes. Reyes barely smiled, let alone laughed. Hearing it left Jack gaping and hoping with no small amount of desperation that Reyes was still too drugged up to notice Jack’s stellar impression of a goldfish.

“You don’t recognize it?” Reyes asked, and Jack shook his head, his cheeks warming rapidly. “Must be more of a relic than I thought it was. It’s Captain America.”

_Oh_ , Jack thought. _Of course. It’s the shield._ How had he not made that connection? The serums must have taken away more of his cognitive processing than he’d realized. “Why Captain America?” he asked. “You don’t… really seem the type.”

Reyes laughed again, a highly inconsiderate action that was not helping Jack’s face cool down, and also left a strange tingling at the base of his spine. “Yeah, you’re not the first person to say that. I guess maybe I’m not anymore, but… When I was kid, I had a crush like you wouldn’t believe.” Reyes shook his head with a sigh, rubbing a thumb over the tag in question. “I’ve been wearing this since I was ten. Now I feel naked without it, you know? So I slipped it on with my other tags and I just hope no one notices.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah,” he answered. “I get that.” He didn’t, but it seemed like an appropriate response, and in any case most of his remaining brain power had very helpfully devoted itself to loudly repeating the word ‘crush’ over and over again in his head, as well as reminding Jack just how much of a resemblance he bore to the blond haired, blue eyed Captain. Maybe agreeing would distract Reyes from the fact that Jack’s head was two seconds and one more smile from bursting into flame.

“Anyway, thanks for finding these,” Reyes continued. “I can’t believe I forgot them. This last round of serums really fucked with my head.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “Me too.” That was why his cheeks felt like they were burning, he told himself. The serums. “I’ll, uh. Let you go back to bed now.”

“Yeah. You should probably get some sleep too.” Reyes smirked. “Looks like the golden boy is finally reacting to this shit.”

“Oh. Am I?” Jack said lightly. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, your face is about the same color as a tomato, so. Might wanna get that checked out.” Reyes shook his head in apparent amusement, and offered Jack a final smile. It barely touched the corners of his mouth, and looking at it, Jack became aware of just how disturbingly _handsome_ Reyes was when he smiled. “Good night, Morrison.”

He closed the door with a quiet click, leaving Jack to stare blankly at where he’d been standing as the last wave of warmth brought on by Reyes’ smile settled deeply within his bones. It left behind a crackle of something strange that worked its way across his skin with startlingly efficiency, before finally everything converged all at once in his chest, and Jack felt his heart begin to pound against his rib cage.

“Oh,” he said aloud to no one. “Fuck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Listen if you don't think Gabriel Reyes had the biggest fucking kid crush on Captain America when he was younger don't even talk to me. Or, if you do, talk to me about it on [tumblr](http://ladyhoneydarlinglove.tumblr.com/).


End file.
